Wednesday, August 27, 2008

As the final regular season of Barbecue & Politics comes to a close, and football season nears, it’s time to look back at a few of the highlights of the summer...

Anti-public school oaths, take two. For the second time in his tenure as Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford appointed a signatory of an anti-public school pledge to the Education Oversight Committee. Shameful.

The Thursday THRASH Awards. Several “South Carolina” groups won the The Howard Rich Advocacy and Shilling for Hire award for pretending to represent South Carolina values while actually being bankrolled from out of state.

The SC Association of Taxpayers won for taking money from Big Tobacco to fight an increase in our state’s cigarette tax for yet another year.

The SC Policy Council won for advancing an out-of-state voucher agenda, with lots of out-of-state voucher dollars.

The "SC" Club for Growth and SCRG got matching awards to display in their shared, Howard Rich-funded office in Columbia.

Greenwashing. For the first time ever, South Carolina has an anti-conservation group, and it calls itself “Citizens for Sound Conservation.”Vetting Mark Sanford. Gervais took a look at (Vice President?) Mark Sanford’s “military service,” which began during his campaign for governor.

Buying South Carolina. New York millionaire Howard Rich and associates have spent over $600,000 in 2008 on South Carolina's Republican and Democratic primaries in an continuing his attempt to buy a legislature that will pass his private school voucher bill.

Seuss-gate. Will Folks blew the lid off this important scandal, I just reported on the report.

Conservatives in Action. The group that politicized our judicial races turns out to be another out-of-state front group. Shocker!

Make an omelet. Somebody egged Joshua Gross's car. How do you solve a crime for which the entire state has motive?

From Gervais and the entire Bridges Family, thanks for stopping by Barbecue & Politics over the last few months!